Corn crush for ethanol, coproduct production down in February

The corn crush for ethanol production was down 11 percent in February, according to the monthly survey-based report, Grain Crushings and Co-Products Production. USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Service releases the report on the first business day of each month.

Corn consumed for fuel ethanol production in February totaled 395.8 million bushels in February, down 11 percent from January and down 13 percent from December. Dry mills accounted for 90 percent of the crush and wet mills 10 percent. Corn used for purposes other than fuel production totaled 37.6 million bushels, down 13 percent from January and down 16 percent from December. February usage included 2.7 million bushels for beverage alcohol, up 29 percent from January and up 14 percent from December.

Dry mill DDGS production followed the crush decline, at 1.65 million tons in February, down 11 percent from January and 14 percent from December. Distillers wet grains (65 percent or more moisture) was 1.14 million tons in February 2015 down 15 percent from January 2015 and down 19 percent from December 2014.

Corn oil production for February total 96,350 tons, down from January’s 105,350 tons and December’s 97,380 tons. Other dry mill coproducts included condensed distillers solubles (syrup) at 128,000 tons in February (162,600 in January, 172,000 in December); distillers dried grains at 405,000 tons in February (439,000 in January, 448,500 in December); modified distillers wet grains (40-64 percent moisture) at 421,700 tons in February (480,100 in January; 503,300 in December).

Carbon dioxide captured at both dry and wet mills totaled 173,900 tons for February. NASS withheld data on sorghum consumed for dry mill ethanol production in February, as well as January, to avoid disclosing data for individual operations. 889,000 hundredweight in December was the last reported sorghum crush.